Cleric or Paladin?

[Minako]

So, having gotten over my feel bad about not playing main I am thinking up a few other chars to try. I want to make a cleric who is just basically a fighter, but has her cleric spells as back up. I will not probably have cure X wounds ever used as I will just have her buffs and removes. For example when fighting beholders she can cure the level drain when a beholder dispells all your stuff. Remove poison for things. Killing speed is not TO much of a concern.

I have seen war priest is a trap and cleric should not use it. Is this true?

Now a paladin could be this type of dps, but a paladin does not get all the removeal things does it? Or things like death ward? I just don't know which one to pick given what I want to try.

 

[Seppi Pearlsmith]

You need restoration to restore 1 negative level/each cast and greater restoration to restore all levels at once. Death ward can protect you from level drain but beholders can and will dispel that. Paladins can cast some remove spells and restoration and death ward at higher levels.
I'd recommend looking at a character planner and make a build on that before investing time into an alt. Or request a build on the subforum.

 

[Tyrande]

DDO Paladins do get "Remove Curse", "Restoration", "Cure Poison", "Cure Disease" and "Deathward".
Deathward is a spell at level 4 paladin spells; at paladin level 14+.

DPS wise, DDO Paladin is a much better character than cleric. Ironic, isn't it? In your classic P&P play, cleric is a much stronger character.
Also, in DDO, the paladin does not need to behave in a "lawful good" character manner, i.e. the paladin can go on a killing spree killing the good folks of Stormreach and be evil, unlike regular D&D.

 

[Rusty_helmet]

You need restoration to restore 1 negative level/each cast and greater restoration to restore all levels at once. Death ward can protect you from level drain but beholders can and will dispel that. Paladins can cast some remove spells and restoration and death ward at higher levels.
I'd recommend looking at a character planner and make a build on that before investing time into an alt. Or request a build on the subforum.

Spell absorb blocks beholder dispel. Wear it.

 

[Elves United]

On everyone of my characters on the hot bar just above my main hot bar

potions of blindness removal
potions of disease removal
potions of poison nuetralization
potions of curse removal

I do not waste spell points on things I can do just by consuming a very cheap potion.

And since you only want buffs and heals, then you could always multi-class. 14th level cleric (domain war) - 6th paladin
And go heavy into the sacred defender / knight chalice trees.

 

[Minako]

That could work. If I gain cleric levels I can put points in paladin trees? Would I got all the way to 14 as a cleric then do paladin?

 

[CherryBomb]

Cleric used to be a treasured class. Many, many LFMs begged for clerics to join as support. Then once, in the infinite wisdom of the devs, clerics were nerfed and many other classes were given some heals. The valued cleric became a 2nd class toons that were not wanted in parties because they had lower DPS. Who needs your heals, we need fighters? Then they buffed the clerics with fighting abilities and here we are.

Two of our guild's most valued members left the game at the time of the nerf, never to return to DDO. Sad, sad days.

 

[SpartanKiller13]

Pally KotC C3 (available at lvl 6) makes your Remove Disease also apply a Greater Restoration (and C4 gives negative drain immunity) which covers you pretty well.

I'd definitely recommend Pally over Cleric for someone new to it and wanting to melee. Also LoH is great for emergency healing, and the buffs (like Righteous Command) are generally better.

 

[Elves United]

That could work. If I gain cleric levels I can put points in paladin trees? Would I got all the way to 14 as a cleric then do paladin?

You need to have 4 levels of paladin to get Tier 4 enhancements.
5 Levels of paladin to get Tier 5 enhancements.
6 levels of Paladin to get core 3 enhancements.
14 levels of cleric gets you 7th level cleric spells and holy sword from your war domain.

One way you could go is iconic with a 1 dragon lord 5 paladin 14 cleric purple dragon knight ( charisma max )
And start at level 15.

 

[droid327]

Paladin sounds like its already designed to be the class you want...primarily a tanky melee DPS, with spot heals and curatives (including Death Ward, at least by the time you're L20). No need to reinvent the wheel, especially when Cleric is a pretty weak base for a melee build (Warpriest is seriously below average).

Also, multiclassing Cleric does allow you to address some of the shortcomings of a pure Cleric, but it also pushes back your progression considerably - a 14 Clr/6 xxx wont see Holy Sword, for example, till L20, while most builds get their +1/+1 crit bonuses at L12.

 

[droid327]

One way you could go is iconic with a 1 dragon lord 5 paladin 14 cleric purple dragon knight ( charisma max )
And start at level 15.

PDK cant take their 1 level as Dragon Lord, they have to be basic Fighter...unless you're LRing or ETRing

Though it doesnt sound like you're actually using Dragon Lord for anything specific in that split anyway

 

[AbyssalMage]

So, having gotten over my feel bad about not playing main I am thinking up a few other chars to try. I want to make a cleric who is just basically a fighter, but has her cleric spells as back up. I will not probably have cure X wounds ever used as I will just have her buffs and removes. For example when fighting beholders she can cure the level drain when a beholder dispells all your stuff. Remove poison for things. Killing speed is not TO much of a concern.

I have seen war priest is a trap and cleric should not use it. Is this true?

Now a paladin could be this type of dps, but a paladin does not get all the removeal things does it? Or things like death ward? I just don't know which one to pick given what I want to try.

Paladin is hands down better.

That being said, a twf drow cleric using daggers is a fun build. Just remember the Paladin would still be the better choice.

Edit - SWF would allow a no tome build so you can focus on max wisdom, con, and 13 sec (for Precision).

 

[Marshal_Lannes]

Cleric used to be a treasured class. Many, many LFMs begged for clerics to join as support. Then once, in the infinite wisdom of the devs, clerics were nerfed and many other classes were given some heals. The valued cleric became a 2nd class toons that were not wanted in parties because they had lower DPS. Who needs your heals, we need fighters? Then they buffed the clerics with fighting abilities and here we are.

Two of our guild's most valued members left the game at the time of the nerf, never to return to DDO. Sad, sad days.

Most raid groups find themselves posting for Healer and Tank. Many R10 groups want clerics. Clerics have some of the best situational R10 DPS. Cleric is a fairly strong and desired class. Paladin is way better for what the OP is asking for though. Paladin has both a high floor and a high ceiling. An excellent all-around class.

 

[dur]

I guess it depends on how you want to kill. **Spells or Swords.

I prefer to stand toe-to-toe and beat the crap outta things, so I'd say paladin. But the changes to clerics intrigue me and I haven't played one since they've made the changes.

Before the changes, I wouldn't even consider cleric because I prefer to beat the crap outta monsters; and paladins gain great saves, *way better DPS, and BAB.

*I wouldn't multi-class anything these days unless you plan on 'parking' it at 20 or 34. ..even then, they keep tweaking the #&*$@ trees...

**if you're looking for a trapper, stick with trapper classes else you'll wind up cheating your cleric.

 

[Elves United]

PDK cant take their 1 level as Dragon Lord, they have to be basic Fighter...unless you're LRing or ETRing

Though it doesnt sound like you're actually using Dragon Lord for anything specific in that split anyway

Interesting. I haven't reincarnated a character as a purple dragon knight since before Dragon Lord came out.
But the main reason I choose dragon lord is because of the tactics.

Dragonlord ( 2 AP spent ) -> +4 Tactics
War Domain( lvl 14 ) -> +7 Tactics
Divine Might -> + 1/2 charisma bonus tactics
Chalice -> +3 Sunder
Purple Dragon Knight -> + 1/3 charisma bonus tactics.

The +4 isn't critical as you would get a lot from other sources but it would be nice.

 

[Bjond]

Personally, I like making odd-ball builds; eg. my tank is a rogue. So, I'd love to see a strong cleric DPS build. I even did it once with my thrower.

There's just one problem with cleric or fvs as your primary class on a DPS build: everyone expects you to be a heal bot who's main focus is to heal them. It was such a problem on my thrower that I punted the entire concept.

I don't mind spot healing, but when people see the cleric icon and start playing dumb because "oh, the cleric can heal me as I face-tank these on my wizard", I stopped wanting to play the character.

The funny thing is no one ever expects my druid to cast a single heal. Druids are great healers, too. I guess the game population has been conditioned over time to not expect it.

 

[Marshal_Lannes]

here's just one problem with cleric or fvs as your primary class on a DPS build: everyone expects you to be a heal bot who's main focus is to heal them. It was such a problem on my thrower that I punted the entire concept.

I don't mind spot healing, but when people see the cleric icon and start playing dumb because "oh, the cleric can heal me as I face-tank these on my wizard", I stopped wanting to play the character.

No doubt this is a problem. Even in R10 groups, you will have some players that see a Cleric icon in the group and suddenly feel emboldened to forget all about agro management and they begin playing like they are zerging through Water works. For a fun exercise observe how a group plays when they don't have a Cleric in the group vs how they play with one in it.

And, sometimes, not always, but sometimes, you will get rage blamed by people in raids. Since a Cleric and the Tank are the only two classes (maybe Arcane caster if you need some CC up) where anyone notices what you're doing. You can hum along as a Paladin in a raid no one is going to notice anything you do. As a Cleric you're going to be expected to keep PCs from dying with some degree of competency. Something to keep in mind on how much responsibility you want in raids (if you raid).

 

[Archest]

making a cleric and not having it heal other players . I've done it with a FVS too . other players expect you to heal them. lol they get a great disappointment when you don't because your set up as a war priest. all you can do is tell them to being a heal bot that your not one.

 

[axel15810]

I've played both melee DPS cleric and melee DPS paladin a ton, so here's my thoughts -

Paladin is much better for solo'ing. It has better melee DPS than cleric, solid self heals and amazing self only buffs. KotC is a way better DPS tree than Warpriest. It you are solo'ing absolutely go Pally. Pally is just better in most situations because it brings better DPS and has plenty of self heals and way better survivability since it has sacred defender access and divine grace. Most people will be much better off going Pally.

Melee cleric really needs to be played in groups to make it worth using instead of pally. You won't have as much DPS or survivability but it does have a lot more versatility and brings helpful things to a group. It has a wide array of helpful party buffs pally doesn't get like TS, FoM, Holy Aura. Multiple quicken-able Res spells to get the party up fast in hairy situations. Radiance in tier 5 RS is super helpful to parties. In most situations Paladin is better but Melee Cleric can have RS aura going at all times for passive heals and multiple spammable mass cures with no max caster levels through tier 5 RS. War domain gives them Holy Sword to make up a lot of DPS. Main advantage melee cleric has over pally is ability to function as a party healer in addition to doing solid DPS, and bring essential party buffs. Now that said I think if you don't go tier 5 radiant servant you may as well just play pally instead, despite tier 5 RS just being OK. On melee cleric I typically don't use Warpriest much at all and instead go WIS based, tier 4 Falconry.

In either case don't plan on doing any offensive spellcasting. If you're going to play a melee cleric you need to go all in on melee DPS. Or if an offensive caster, go all in on that. There aren't enough feat and gear slots to go around to be good at both offensive casting and melee - trying to do both ends with you being mediocre at both IMO. And Cleric doesn't have any good passive DPS so you can't justify the opportunity cost of time spent casting spells when your melee DPS is way better, or vice versa, if building an offensive caster. If you want to be a hybrid caster/melee, arcanes do that better.

 

[Fauxknight]

Spell absorb blocks beholder dispel. Wear it.

Level 12 KotC pally core makes you immune to level drains. So it should be a non-issue past that for a DPS pally.

making a cleric and not having it heal other players . I've done it with a FVS too . other players expect you to heal them. lol they get a great disappointment when you don't because your set up as a war priest. all you can do is tell them to being a heal bot that your not one.

It's pretty low effort to have a positive spellpower item and a couple of healing spells. Not having any healing hampers yourself as well as the party. I've played an every TR complete Warsoul for a bit. I did have to often explain that I wasn't a healer to a raids disappointment, but I still provided a lot of area healing from Consecrate and Ameliorating Strike.